“Facing Saler is going to be awesome, big time,” Quintana said Sunday. “A big moment of the season. He was my teammate. It's a different feeling but it's good to face the best left-hander in the league. He's the best. He's the best teammate of the pitchers I've had. We have a really good relationship. He's really fun to watch. He's good and he has good stuff. But we're focusing on us. I want to do my job and that's my focus.”

Through 10 starts, Sale has a 2.34 ERA and leads the American League with 73 innings, 101 strikeouts, a 1.79 FIP, a 0.808 WHIP and a 7.28 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

But that's no surprise. The White Sox knew he was good when he they traded him for a rebuilding package headlined by Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech this offseason.

In seven seasons with the White Sox, as a starter and reliever, Sale had a 3.00 ERA and struck out 1,244 batters in 1,111 innings.

“I have so much respect,” Jose Abreu said through his interpreter. “He was one of the best teammates that I had here in my first three years. That will be fun.”

***

The White Sox are finally going to get some starts out of 2009 second-round pick David Holmberg. Sent to Arizona as part of the 2010 Edwin Jackson for Daniel Hudson trade, the 25-year-old left-hander came back on a minor league deal and has been quietly effective (0.87 ERA) in 10 1/3 innings out of the bullpen since being called up. Holmberg will start Monday against David Price, and could be a multi-start solution until James Shields finishes his rehab from his lat strain.

“We’re hoping that we can take him out to a five-inning stint,” Rick Renteria said of Holmberg. “Depending on how many pitches he throws and things like that nature. He was starting obviously in the minor leagues, so he had been stretched out.”

Holmberg has made one start this season in Triple-A Charlotte, but otherwise pitched out of the bullpen. The standout factor has been control, as he’s walked just two of the 35 batters he’s faced, despite coming into the year with a career walk percentage near 12 percent. He sits in the high 80s and won’t rack up strikeouts, and will be challenged to reach the five-inning goal Renteria has set, but given that the Sox were previously challenging Dylan Covey in this slot, it’s all the same.

***

Tyler Danish was sent back down to the minors after his wild but scoreless season debut. While the Sox are not above bringing him up and sending him down, it seems they would like to keep him on a regular schedule. He likely won’t fill the gap in the rotation as they wait for Shields and Carlos Rodon to arrive, but Renteria said he could be back this season very easily.

“Every time a major league pitcher or player, anyone that continues to get opportunities to come up,” Renteria said. “Every time they do they chip away a little bit of anxiety away and a little of the newness of being here. I think he had some confidence yesterday and made some adjustments.”

***

That weird batting stance Adam Engel has where he holds his bat out nearly straight with his hands high above his head? He says that was the adjustment that enabled him to hit .272/.354/.588 in Triple-A since getting four days off on April 15.

“Just kind of picked them up a little bit,” Engel said. “I have been kind of getting them behind me, kind of putting me in a tough position to hit. I just picked them up and I feel like I’m in a better position.”

A doubleheader gave Engel an opportunity to get a start in on Saturday, but he figures to provide Renteria a proper defensive upgrade in the outfield and elite speed pinch-runner to bring off the bench.

James Fegan is the lead writer on the White Sox for The Athletic Chicago. Previously, James founded and served as Editor-in-Chief of BP South Side, and his work has appeared in Baseball Prospectus, ESPN SweetSpot, The Rock River Times and Athlete's Quarterly. Follow James on Twitter @JRFegan.